Europe Plan B
Posted on 18. Apr, 2010 by Ajay Goyal in All Write
We think of natural disasters as something that happens to poor people in Africa, Asia, China and Haiti. Natural disasters are something CNN covers for 3 hours so Bill Clinton foundation can gather some aid money for it.
But what if Europe were to face a natural disaster?
Ash Above Europe
Icelandic volcano clouds are now all over Europe. Thousands of flights are grounded. I joked today about life changing situations that could emerge in Europe that only a Bruce Willis like all American hero could stave off. But what is Europe’s preparedness if an Icelandic volcano goes on spewing toxic fumes for weeks or months?
The ash from Eyjafjallajökull ( Pronounced I-ya-fyalla-jyokull ) is said to have severly negative health affects.
If the volcanic eruption escalates and lasts, Europe is looking at more than a traffic situation. It could be a full blown existential crisis.
Does European Union have a plan to deal with a massive disaster? I doubt it. No one expects a Tsunami or a earthquake to it Europe. Some wild fires in Spain, Portugal and Greece aside, Europe is only hit by occasional hurricanes from the Atlantic ocean. When big freeze or heat waves come, thousands suffer. If a europe-wide toxic ash settlement were to happen and continue mass evacutaion and migration plans will need to be in place.
Health services could come under severe pressure. Air travel chaos could cause economies to collapse. If the health care crisis is controlled Europe will yet need to move heavily into road, river, sea and turbo-prop air transport.
Europeans will have to look east at Russia and west across the Atlantic at United States for safe havens. Russians and Americans will no doubt welcome a migration of people’s of Europe.
Europe Could Turn into This...a desert of toxic ash
If large tracts of Europe are made un-inhabitable by Icelandic ash world could face an unprecedented crisis. Unprecedented because when the prosperous suffer, they make a heck of a lot more noise than the poor. A million were butchered without so much as a whisper in Rwanda. Millions more have died in wars, natural disasters in Africa, Asia and they are rarely more than week long stories in Europe. Europeans are more likely to start wars and invade nations in search of land and habitat than any other nation. Such is European history. They wont take no for an answer like the Maldives. When faced with submergence under the rising oceans Maldives proposed buying land in Australia for all their citizens – they were rebuked. No one wants a poor migrant. There is no chance of a million Haitians being moved to United States A million Europeans in distress- well thats another matter.
But Europe cannot rest by such expectations alone. There need to be contingencies in place. Europe needs a plan B if the Icelandic chemical war on Europe continues.
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